JPH08188403A - Pressure change adsorption type oxygen concentration device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To enhance the noise-preventing effect of the subject device and simultaneously compact the subject device by allowing air to parallel flow in two chambers partitioned with a specific division plate having small holes in each of an air-charging passage and an air-discharging passage. CONSTITUTION: Following components are imparted to a pressure change adsorption type oxygen condensation device manufactured by receiving a compressor, a cooling fan and an automatic opening or closing electromagnetic valve in a noise-proofing box. A division plate 44 for dividing each of passage boxes 35 (formed with flat boxes 40, respectively) for forming an air-charging passage 32 and an air-discharging passage 34, respectively, into two chambers in parallel to each other in the air-flowing direction is disposed in each of the passage boxes. Plural small holes 45 are formed in the division plate. The diameter of the small hole is preferably 5-15mm.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pressure swing adsorption type oxygen concentrator, and more particularly to a pressure swing adsorption type oxygen concentrator used for oxygen therapy of a home patient having a respiratory disorder such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An oxygen concentrator is mainly used as a breathing assisting device used for oxygen therapy of home patients, and in particular, a pressure fluctuation adsorption type (P
(SA type) oxygen concentrator is general. By the way, as is well known, the pressure swing adsorption type oxygen concentrator compresses the indoor air sucked into the device with a compressor, and supplies this to one or two sieve beds filled with molecular sieves (molecular sieves) to supply oxygen. Part of the enriched oxygen produced is adsorbed to the patient, and some of the enriched oxygen produced is supplied to the patient, while most of the other enriched oxygen is used to desorb the adsorbed nitrogen to regenerate the molecular sieve. In order to alternately repeat such an adsorption / desorption cycle, an automatic opening / closing solenoid valve is generally used, and a fan for cooling the heat generated by driving the compressor is provided. That is, the pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator is provided with main components such as a compressor, a cooling fan, and an automatic opening / closing solenoid valve that are sources of noise, and these main components are simply stored in an outer shell box. Sometimes it is noisy and is therefore unsuitable for use near the patient's pillow at night. For this reason, conventionally, the above-mentioned required parts that are noise sources are housed in a soundproof box in which a sound absorbing material is attached to the inner wall of an iron plate or aluminum, and the outer shell box of the device, an air intake side passage, an air discharge side passage, etc. In addition, various acoustic shields and sound absorbing mechanisms have been applied to reduce the noise level. For example, in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 4-4007, a compressor, a cooling fan, and an automatic opening / closing solenoid valve are housed in a soundproof box, and a shielding plate having a sound absorbing material is attached to an air intake side passage and an air discharge side passage. A noise prevention method has been proposed in which air flow is provided and the air flow is bent four times or more.

[0003]

However, according to the above-mentioned conventional noise prevention method, an effective sound deadening effect is obtained as compared with the structure in which the air intake side passage and the air discharge side passage are provided with acoustic shielding or sound absorbing mechanism. However, providing a large number of curved paths for bending the air flow in the air intake side passage and the air discharge side passage complicates the structure of the device unnecessarily, and unnecessarily increases the air intake side passage and the air intake side passage. There is a disadvantage that the area occupied by the discharge side passage is increased, and by providing many curved passages, the air resistance is increased and the capacity of the compressor used is also affected.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages of the conventional ones, the present invention is directed to a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrating device in which a compressor, a cooling fan and an automatic opening / closing solenoid valve are housed in a soundproof box. In each of the passage boxes forming the air intake side passage and the air discharge side passage, a partition plate that is parallel to the air flow direction and is separated into two chambers is provided, and a plurality of small holes are provided in the partition plate. It is characterized by that. In the above, the passage box comprises a cubic box body having an air inlet or an air outlet on one of the front and rear surfaces, and an air outlet or an air inlet on any one of the left and right side surfaces or the upper and lower surfaces, preferably Sound absorbing materials are provided on both surfaces of the partition plate forming the air flow passage and on the inner wall surface of the housing. Further, it is effective that the small holes have a diameter of 5 to 15 mm.

[0005]

In the air intake side passage and the air discharge side passage, however, the air flow is divided into two by the partition plate in the flow direction and passes through the two chambers in parallel, and the partition plate is passed in the course of this passage. The generated sound is resonantly damped at the position of the small hole provided at the position to produce a sound deadening effect, and the air flow is bent and discharged at the position of the outlet.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a specific example of a flow sheet of a pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator of the present invention. Compressed air compressed by a compressor 1 is cooled by a cooling fan 2 via a heat exchanger 3. , Is introduced into the first sheave bed 5 through the automatic opening / closing solenoid valve 6 in the open state. Here, nitrogen is adsorbed and separated, and a part of the concentrated oxygen generated by this passes through the orifice 12, the product tank 14, the pressure regulator 16, the flow meter 17, and the filter 18,
The humidifier 19 is then humidified and delivered to the patient via the canoe 20.

On the other hand, most of the generated concentrated oxygen enters the second sieve bed through the orifice 13, desorbs the nitrogen adsorbed in the previous cycle, and passes through the automatic open / close solenoid valve 9 in the open state. Released into the atmosphere. Pressure equalizing valve 10
Opens the valve for a short time only immediately before the cycle is switched, and sends concentrated oxygen to the second sieve bed that produces the next concentrated oxygen through the orifice 11, increasing its internal pressure, and the next cycle under high pressure. Start with.

In the next cycle, similarly, the automatic opening / closing solenoid valves 8 and 7 are opened, concentrated oxygen is produced in the second sieve bed 5, and nitrogen is desorbed in the first sieve bed. These two cycles are alternately repeated by switching the automatic opening / closing solenoid valves 6, 7, 8 and 9 to continuously generate concentrated oxygen. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 4 denotes a high-voltage switch, and 15 denotes a low-pressure switch, which are used as safety means to operate when the pressure rises or falls.

FIG. 2 shows a compressor 1, a cooling fan 2 and automatic opening / closing solenoid valves 6, 7, 8 and 9 which are sources of noise shown in FIG. A device body 3 housed in a soundproof box made of an aluminum plate having a thickness of about 2 mm and equipped with other necessary accessories such as a sheave bed
The air intake side passage 32 facing the air inlet 31 provided in the upper part of the front surface of the device 0 and the air discharge side passage 34 facing the air outlet 33 provided in the lower surface of the apparatus body 30 are provided with the respective passages 32 and 34. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the whole structure in which a passage box 35 is installed.
It is composed of an outer shell made of wood chip compression plywood with a thickness of 12 mm. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 36 denotes a control panel section of this apparatus, in which a power switch, a flow meter, an integrating time meter, a concentrated oxygen outlet breaker, and the like are arranged.

The passage box 35 has a width of 70 to 200 mm and a length of 100 to 250 mm, as shown in FIGS.
Consisting of a flat tubular box 40 with a height of 50 to 10 mm,
This box 40 is made of aluminum, an iron plate, a wooden plate, etc. having a sound absorbing material 41 such as polyurethane or rubber on the inner wall surface thereof, and has an air inlet 42 on the front surface and an air outlet 43 on the rear side surface. In the box 40, there is a partition plate 44 with the air inlet 42 and the air outlet 43, which divides the inner chamber of the box 40 into upper and lower parts so that the air flows in the upper chamber and the lower chamber are substantially the same. The partition plate 44 is made of aluminum, iron plate, wood plate, etc. like the box 40, and has a plurality of small holes. In this example, six small holes 45 are provided in each of the vertical and horizontal directions. In addition, the same sound absorbing material 46 as that described above is provided on both upper and lower surfaces thereof, leaving the small holes 45.

The box 4 having the partition plate 44 thus provided
0 indicates the air inlet 42 in the air intake side passage 32.
So as to face the air intake 31 of the device body 30, and in the air discharge side passage 34 so that the air outlet 43 faces the air discharge port 33 of the device body 30 or communicates via a conduit. Equipped inside.

When the compressor 1 installed in the main body 30 of the apparatus is driven, outside air flows from the air inlet 31 into the box 40 through the air inlet 42 in the passage box 25 of the air intake side passage 32, The air that has flowed into the body 40 is divided into two chambers, an upper chamber and a lower chamber, by the partition plate 44, is bent at a right angle, and flows out from the air outlet 43 into the apparatus body 30. On the other hand, in the air discharge side passage 34, the air flowing through the inside of the apparatus main body 30 and then out of the soundproof box flows into the box body 40 from the air inlet 42, and the air flowing into the box body 40 is the partition plate as described above. The flow is divided into two chambers, upper and lower, by 44, and is bent at a right angle to be discharged from the air outlet 43 to the atmosphere via the air discharge port 33 of the apparatus body 30.
In the process of air flow in the box 40, the upper and lower parts 2
The air diverted into the chamber is resonantly attenuated at the position of the small hole 45 to exhibit a noise prevention effect, and the sound absorbing materials 41 and 46 further absorb the sound. In the above embodiment, the case where the inner chamber of the box 40 is divided into the upper and lower chambers is shown. However, the air inlet 42 is provided on the front surface of the box 40 and the air outlet 43 is provided on the rear upper surface of the box 40. Therefore, the inner chamber of the box 40 may be divided into the left and right two chambers to form the passage box 35, and in the embodiment, the air inlet 42 may be used as an air outlet and the air outlet 43 may be used as an air inlet. Of course.

According to an experiment conducted by the inventor, the oxygen concentrator of the present invention having a performance of an oxygen concentration of 91% at a maximum flow rate of 3 liters / min shows that the device main body 30 is installed in a soundproof room (dark noise 22 dB (A)). Distance 1m from the front, height 40c
When measured at the m position, the noise level is 37 dB.
(A) is shown. Further, in the above, when the diameter of the small hole 45 is 5 mm or less, it becomes close to the state of a non-perforated plate, and when it is 15 mm or more, the area occupied by the small hole 45 becomes large and an effective noise prevention effect is obtained. Was not expected.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the generated sound is resonantly damped at the position of the small hole provided in the partition plate in the course of the air flow in the passage, a large noise prevention effect can be obtained. In addition, the structure is simple, the area occupied by the passage box is small, and it is effective for downsizing of the device. Also, the number of bendings of the air flow is 2 times or less, so the air resistance is also higher than the conventional one. It can be greatly reduced. Further, when the structure according to claims 2 and 3 is adopted,
It has the advantage that the sound deadening effect can be increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a flow sheet of the device of the present application.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus main body.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the entire aisle box.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 30 Device Main Body 31 Air Inlet 32 Air Intake Side Passage 33 Air Outlet 34 Air Exhaust Side Passage 35 Passage Box 40 Box 41, 46 Sound Absorbing Material 42 Air Inlet 43 Air Outlet 44 Partition Plate 45 Small Hole

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator in which a compressor, a cooling fan and an automatic opening / closing solenoid valve are housed in a soundproof box, wherein air is provided in each passage box forming an air intake side passage and an air discharge side passage. 1. A pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator, characterized in that a partition plate that separates into two chambers is provided in parallel in the flow direction of, and a plurality of small holes are provided in this partition plate. 2. A cubic box in which a passage box forming a passage has an air inlet or an air outlet on one of the front and rear surfaces, and an air outlet or an air inlet on any one of the left and right side surfaces or the upper and lower surfaces. The pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrating device according to claim 1, which comprises a body. 3. The pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein sound absorbing materials are provided on both sides of the partition plate, leaving small holes. 4. The pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrating device according to claim 1, wherein a sound absorbing material is provided on the inner wall surface of the box. 5. The pressure fluctuation adsorption type oxygen concentrator according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the small holes have a diameter of 5 to 15 mm.